GM postpones two electric pickups again and halts Cruise Origin

General Motors has once again postponed the start of production of the electric pickups Chevrolet Silverado EV and the GMC Sierra EV. They won’t roll off the production line until mid-2026, about one and a half years later than initially planned. The Cruise Origin robotaxi has been scrapped altogether.

General Motors had already rescheduled production of the two electric pickups from Orion Township in October 2023. At that time, the start of production (SOP) was pushed back by just over a year to the end of 2025.

Now, it will probably be another six months. As Bloomberg and the Detroit Free Press report, production will not start until mid-2026. That is particularly bitter for the plant’s employees. After discontinuing the Chevrolet Bolt, produced there until the end of 2023, the assembly lines will be idle for even longer.

EV production to follow demand

General Motors CEO Mary Barra recently admitted that the company would not be able to achieve its goal of producing one million electric vehicles by the end of next year. The renewed delay of two significant electric pickups made the project even more difficult.

However, for both models, it is not about the market launch per se but an expansion of production. GM makes the Chevrolet Silverado EV in Detroit-Hamtramck and the GMC Hummer EV as a pickup and SUV. However, the unit numbers are lower than parallel production in Orion Township.

The company announced it would increase EV production if buyers showed more interest in them. “We continue to make sure we continue to scale the business to customers and where they are,” GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson explained.

No Cruise Origin anymore

The Factory Zero in Detroit-Hamtramck is also where the Cruise Origin electric robotaxi was previously built. GM has lost faith in this particular vehicle.

After GM subsidiary Cruise’s operating license for its self-driving cars in California was revoked in October 2023, production of the Origin in Detroit was halted anyway. It is clear that it will not start up again and that the Origin will not be further developed.

GM announced that the Cruise team would focus on the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt instead of the Origin for its next autonomous vehicle. Still, the Bolt would no longer come from Orion Township but from the Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas.

As a passenger car model, the Bolt will also have pedals and a steering wheel again, which was not the case with the Cruise Origin. “This addresses the regulatory uncertainty we faced with the Origin because of its unique design,” says Barra. “Also, per-unit costs will be much lower, which will help Cruise optimize its resources.”